Fuffr Brings 'Minority Report'-Like Gestures to Your Phone

While the touchscreen revolutionized mobile, it also inspired a quest for more screen to touch, leading to the unwieldy, inevitable phablet. But what if you could expand the touchscreen beyond the limits of your phone with just a phone case?

This is the idea behind Fuffr, a phone case that uses outward-pointing sensors to read finger gestures outside the phone, freeing up screen real estate and expanding the canvas upon which you can interact with your phone.

The Swedish startup plans to launch a Kickstarter for its eponymous phone case tomorrow, with delivery slated for spring 2015. In anticipation of the release, Fuffr has been quietly sending out around 200 devkits to iOS developers.

The Tech

The Fuffr looks like a simple smartphone case and is amazingly light; it's barely thicker than most plastic iPhone cases. The device keeps that slim profile by using energy-efficient Bluetooth Low Energy to connect to your phone and relying on super-thin rechargeable batteries for power. The case also uses a custom charging cable that's half the thickness of a MicroUSB port. Yes, it's thin, but unfortunately it's one more cable to lug around.

Thus far, Fuffr works only with specific apps and games. To connect, open one of them and then hold down Fuffr's first button (it's near the phone's volume buttons). You'll need to reconnect with every app, as the case automatically powers down after a period of inactivity.

Once you're connected, set the phone down on a flat surface — with nearly zero delay, the sensors begin to track your fingers roaming around the surface beside the phone. Up to four fingers can be tracked on each side of the case. Fuffr maintains that the device could even be used while you're holding your phone up in the air, since the infrared sensors track motion beside the case, not contact with an adjacent surface.

"Infrared sensors are great because of their versatility and ability to detect finger placement and movement outside the smartphone, regardless of the surface or if your fingers are dirty or wet," Fuffr co-founder Mai-Li Hammargren says.

Games, Games, Games

Fuffr built its own games to test the case's technology, such as the Fuffr Bird it demoed for Gizmodo using an early version of the case. The company has refined five of those tech demos into full-fledged launch games, including a four-player Simon clone,a split-screen Temple Run-style competitive race, and a first-person adventure game. Fuffr hopes that outside developers and independent game studios will release their own games and programs in time for the case's ship date next spring.

"There's a special kind of magic when you play a Fuffr game with strangers and all of a sudden you're laughing together, it really breaks down social barriers," Hammargren says.

Will It Blend?

Fuffr is meant to be more than a party trick, though. The team reasoned that tracking motion outside the case would allow developers to make apps that didn't require capacitive touch— which, for example, could allow users keep their gloves on when it's snowy out and still control their phone. However, the device's finger tracking is accurate, but not quite as accurate as what touchscreens can achieve when they allow you to type on a keyboard or click tiny links in a browser. Knowing that limitation, is there a need for external tracking?

If Fuffr can be used in midair, then sure. If it can be used to unlock and manipulate the phone with gestures instead of capacitive touch, absolutely. But at the moment, the three-person Fuffr team has focused on getting their tech to market, not pushing the envelope. That, it turns out, might be your job.

The team's stance has been to develop the tech, lead with some playful tech demonstrations, and let the internet build fantastical applications. While it's a risky proposition, the company has released all the code and documentation for anyone to jump on their GitHub repository and engineer their own app, though they'll probably want to request the devkit.

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